Tag Archives: AutoFocus

AutoFocus is a minimalist time management system by Mark Forster. It certainly has its merits, especially if you find that time management systems like Getting Things Done (GTD) are too complicated. While there’s all kinds of GTD apps for the iPhone, only recently have apps based on AutoFocus started to appear. A very interesting AutoFocus app is FocusTodo (n.b. the website seems nearly entirely in Japanese) by Syncreticworks.

I’m going to do a short review of FocusTodo and suggest some possible improvements. It’s a pretty cool app anyways, and I think that AutoFocus purists in particular will really appreciate it.

To-do apps for the iPhone are a dime a dozen. So when one comes along that goes about things differently, it’s worth a closer look. Put Things Off, by spiffingapps.com is that kind of app.

PTO is a very simple task manager, more suited to the AutoFocus crowd than the GTD folks. (If you’re already lost, try reading this.) But it goes about things in a rather novel way: rather than emphasizing the need to do things, PTO makes it easy to, well, just put things off. Each task can be deferred by a fixed amount of time with just one tap. The period to which tasks are put off can be changed in the app’s settings.

Getting Things Done (GTD) is David Allen’s blockbuster time management approach. AutoFocus (AF) is Mark Forster’s method for staying organized, which is gaining popularity quite quickly. Though they have they same goal, I’ve not seen two more dissimilar ways of achieving it. As I try to keep myself organized – and (no surprise) doubtless end up designing my own time management system – researching what’s available is an important part of the process. And while this is neither an exhaustive nor an authoritative comparison, it has been beneficial in my own thinking. So I thought I’d share.